Protesters took to the streets of Iran to denounce the country’s clerical rulers and riot police deployed to face them in a third day of demonstrations on Monday after authorities acknowledged shooting down a passenger plane by mistake.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said Qassem Soleimani was killed as part of a broader strategy of deterring challenges by US foes that also applies to China and Russia, further diluting the assertion that the top Iranian general was struck because he was plotting imminent attacks on US targets.
United States President Donald Trump warned Iran on Sunday against killing protesters who have risen up over the regime's downing of a civilian airliner as his defense secretary left the door open to talks with Tehran without preconditions.
Iran's only female Olympic medalist has said on social media she had left her homeland because she had had enough of being used by its authorities as a propaganda tool. Taekwondo champion Kimia Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, implied in an Instagram post that she had moved to Europe. She wrote on an account she has used for some time, but it was not immediately possible to verify her location.
Iran’s military early on Saturday morning announced its role in the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet that killed all 176 people on board, saying the shootdown was “unintentional” and blaming “human error.”
The United States imposed more sanctions on Iran on Friday in retaliation for its missile attack on US forces in Iraq this week and vowed to tighten the economic screws if Tehran continued terrorist acts or pursued a nuclear bomb.
The United States told the United Nations on Wednesday that the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani last week was self-defense and vowed to take additional action “as necessary” in the Middle East to protect US personnel and interests.
Ukraine airliner that crashed in Iran, killing all 176 people aboard, was likely brought down by an Iranian missile, Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said on Thursday, citing intelligence from Canadian and other sources.
Iran has invited the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board to take part in its investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian jetliner and the U.S. agency has agreed to assign an investigator, an Iranian official said on Thursday.
United States Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Wednesday that the United States has reestablished some deterrence toward Iran in the wake of the Jan 3 drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.